Daily Archives: December 21st, 2008

Trendy teenagers who like to see what’s in store next year should look at the latest findings regarding what high school kids in the US think about smoking. Teen smoking rates have dropped in 2008 to a level lower than in the early 1990s. Take a look at a survey of adolescent behaviour conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan at the MTF website.

Declining Trend in Smoking Among American Teenagers (MTF website)

Many teenagers have negative attitudes toward cigarette smoking. The vast majority said they’d rather not date someone who smoked and two-thirds said that “becoming a smoker reflects poor judgment,” according to the survey. “That’s a very important message,” say University of Michigan researchers. “For years and years, the industry pitch was that smoking makes you sexy and attractive to the opposite sex. It turns out the absolute opposite is true. It projects a negative image, for both girls and boys.”

What are the reasons? Its certainly not because of difficulty in getting cigarettes, as the majority noted. Could it be the healthy messages are hitting home at last? Or is this a passing fad?

I’m not complaining..as a cardiologist, I’ve seen enough of the ravages of smoking to probably rank it as public murderer number one.

A stomach-churning potion from the Dark Ages could be the death of the modern day Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection, according to researchers who claim that the ancient treatment outperforms conventional antibiotics.